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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Vancouver police say they knew trouble was brewing downtown during Cup run

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and B.C. Premier Christy Clark at the memory wall on the side of the Hudsons Bay building during the next morning aftermath of the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver, B.C. on June 16, 2011.

Photograph by: Ian Smith
, PNG

(Story published June 16, 2011.)

VANCOUVER - The head of the Vancouver Police Union disputed Mayor Gregor Robertson's statement that police had no advance warning that a small group of troublemakers intended to cause a riot during Wednesday night's Stanley Cup Final.

Tom Stamatakis also said city officials were lulled into a false sense of security because of the peace of the 2010 Winter Olympics, and staffed a crowd with only a fraction of the officers necessary to prevent a riot.

"I think the problem is that a lot of people didn't want to consider that what happened last night might be a possibility, right from the mayor and other city officials to lots of people in the community who wanted to focus on enjoying the Canucks playoff run and having a good time," Stamatakis said in an interview Thursday night.

"Anyone who is suggesting that there wasn't information out there indicating that certain people were wanting to cause problems is wrong, because that intelligence was out there. We were trying to manage it as best as we could given the circumstances of the situation."

Stamatakis said the union met with Police Chief Jim Chu to discuss staffing levels during the playoffs.

But he said it was wrong to try to keep control of crowds of up to 100,000 with a fraction of the officers that were needed to police similar crowds during the Olympics.

"If you want to manage a crowd like that effectively without having it turn into a riot, then we need probably 5,000 police officers, not the five or six or 700 police officers we had out there last night," Stamatakis said. "You need to really step up in terms of physical resources throughout the crowd and keep a lid on things."

He said officers who were out on the beat during the playoffs could sense a different kind of crowd from the Olympics was assembling downtown.

"I think the police that were deploying over the course of the Stanley Cup playoffs knew exactly what was happening.

"I don't think the police miscalculated at all. In the context of the resources that we had available, we tried to muster as many of those resources as we could."

He said the VPD was given information showing trouble was brewing.

"There was information available, and that's the kind of information that leads to early closure of premises selling liquor, and that leads to deploying police officers at SkyTrain or along arterial routes to head off people intent on creating problems."

Stamatakis said anarchists and criminals may have used the game as a cover for starting trouble, but they weren't the only ones rioting.

"Police that were working last night in the downtown area working with this riot weren't faced with just a couple of small group of people who were rioting. There were thousands of people engaged in the riot.

"Everybody was riding the high of the Olympics and didn't want to consider that this experience might not be the same as the Olympic experience."

Still, Stamatakis isn't suggesting downtown celebrations be banned. But he thinks the city needs to take a different approach instead of broadly inviting crowds to come party in the downtown core.

"I am not suggesting we should not celebrate things like the Stanley Cup and other events, but maybe we should spread those things around the city and hopefully not end up with 100,000 people jammed into a couple of square blocks."

Meanwhile, Coun. Suzanne Anton, the Non-Partisan Association mayoral candidate, says there needs to be an independent external review of the decisions that led up to the riot.

She said the review needs to look into whether all police officers were deployed and had enough resources, transportation plans, efforts to control liquor and whether city bylaws need to be revised.

"An internal review just won't cut it," said Anton. "Vancouverites need to have confidence that tough questions will be asked, and that can only be done through an independent review."

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and B.C. Premier Christy Clark at the memory wall on the side of the Hudsons Bay building during the next morning aftermath of the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver, B.C. on June 16, 2011.

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